[Columbus, Ohio] Established in 1939, Continental Office Environments is a very diverse organization filling a wide range of needs for its commercial customers, including but not limited to furniture, moveable walls, flooring installation and maintenance, graphic design and commercial moving. Continental first created a flooring division with Garry Ruick as president in the early 1990s. It was sold to Interface to become part of its Resource network.

Ruick then served as vice president for Re:Sources Americas for Interface from 1996 until 2002, when he returned to Continental to rebuild another flooring operation. “I was the first employee of Continental Commercial Floors,” Ruick said.

The new business is thriving. “CCF is best known for our ability to provide solutions for large and/or complex projects,” he reported. “We are driven by quality and service and committed to customer satisfaction.”

A regional business with headquarters and all operations in Columbus augmented by sales offices and warehouses for installation in Pittsburgh, Pa. and Toledo, Ohio; CCF serves all commercial segments, but has special expertise in the healthcare and corporate markets.

The company employs about 30 highly trained installers on staff as well as sub-contractors. The in-house installers specialize in highly complex resilient installations where time and quality are of the essence, according to Ruick. “In 2012, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus completed a new 600,000 square foot hospital. We installed 55,000 square feet of Johnsonite/Tarkett Melodia sheet vinyl in many complex patterns. We had 25 to 30 people on the job for nine months. Because the project called for patterns, there was a fair amount of scrap. We worked with Johnsonite and shipped the waste back to be used in its ReStart recycling program,” he added. For the hospital project, CCF also installed about 10,000 square yards of Interface carpet tile.

Limited Brands, parent company of retailers Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, Pink, La Senza and Henri Bendel, is a favorite client. “We provide floor covering for their offices throughout the U.S. and Canada,” he said. “It’s virtually all occupied replacement work and we have created custom carpet and wood products for them. Limited Brands is a client for flooring and furniture and we provide ‘bundled solutions’ for them.”

Recession presents opportunity

When the recession started, CCF had a good tight organization in place. Ruick stated, “Ira Sharfin, president and CEO of Continental Office Environments, saw it as a good time to invest. So, we went on the offensive and invested in people, processes and equipment.”

CCF joined Fuse Alliance in January 2012. “Being tied into a group of professionals that I can discuss business challenges and issues with is an advantage. We have clients we travel with nationally and regionally. We use Fuse to help find people for those projects for both furniture and floors. It also gives us access to a good group of suppliers,” Ruick explained.

The greatest challenge for Ruick is the complexity of flooring. “There are so many factors that can impact a project. We have a good handle on all the internal factors, but the external forces — manufacturers, moisture issues, crazy construction schedules — we can’t control but we still have to provide what we promised the client.”